Want to be human, but cube-like

"Yes, I spent the whole night on Sky Island yesterday and managed to build the overall framework for several resource cycles."

Without paying attention to whether Xiangzi followed her into the room, Alex returned to the wardrobe. As she spoke, she reached out and picked through the items with some confusion.

"Are you alright? Would you like to take a break?"

Xiangzi frowned and asked.

“It’s okay. We used to do that all the time. When we were exploring or building houses with our mom, we would get so busy that we wouldn’t sleep for days. Every time, the ‘sleeping police’ would send us back to bed.”

She turned around and said something.

"However, with my mother not around this time, it's a bit strange to be without her voice."

As she spoke, Alex's voice lowered again.

Moment.

"Oh right, the 'Sleeping Police' refers to a hostile undead creature called the Phantom Wing. If you don't sleep for a long time, it will spawn above your head and fly over to attack you. And under the sun during the day, as an undead, the Phantom Wing will burn until it dies. As for the nickname 'Sleeping Police,' I heard it from my mother."

Clearly, Alex remembered the deal Xiangzi had mentioned last night. Based on the condition that Xiangzi should understand that world, Alex dutifully explained it to her in detail.

"But don't worry, monsters won't spawn in this world. I tried it last night, and once you close the portal, the monsters inside the sky island can't come out."

Xiangzi didn't really care whether those monsters would come out.

After all, the existence of witches in this world is dangerous enough. It's fortunate that magical girls are there to protect ordinary people.

Although it might seem a bit shameless of her to say this after refusing the magical girl contract.

But Xiangzi, preoccupied with her own problems, no longer had the energy to become a magical girl who could protect others.

Perhaps, if Cupid had approached her a year earlier.

Will everything change?

Toyokawa Shoko is unknown.

…………

Volume 1: Chapter 18 Bandaged Clothes?!

Compared to his own affairs, Xiangzi is now paying slightly more attention to Alex.

After all, her condition was related to how to resolve the "witch's kiss" curse on her.

Xiangzi could tell that the other person really missed her mother. She mentioned her mother almost every other sentence, and every time the topic came up, it would inevitably veer towards the matter of her mother's disappearance.

While allowing Xiangzi to empathize, it also made her recall some things she didn't want to remember.

"Alex, can't decide which outfit to wear?"

So Xiangzi changed the subject again.

During their conversation, she had been watching Alex struggle in front of the wardrobe for a long time, but she still couldn't find a single piece of clothing to wear.

"Because you see, isn't it very cold outside today?"

Upon hearing this, Alex put down her hands that were picking out clothes, walked to the window that was covered by curtains, and slightly pulled open a gap in the curtains.

“I just saw that everyone outside is wearing a lot of clothes today, so I thought I would wear something similar too.”

That way, you won't seem strange.

As she spoke, she gestured to Xiangzi about the scenery outside.

"I thought you wouldn't feel cold..."

Yesterday, Xiangzi was actually quite curious. In this season when the temperature is only in the single digits, the other person was able to move around outside wearing only a T-shirt and hot pants. Even the black stockings were not very thick, and you could vaguely see through their rosy skin.

"It does get cold, but as long as the temperature gauge doesn't drop to a certain level, you won't lose health. I'm being careful."

Alex nodded, but her explanation remained as incomprehensible as ever.

"If it's cold, you should wear more layers."

Xiangzi shook her head. Adhering to the agreement that the two should help each other understand the world, she stepped forward and prepared to choose a suitable outfit for Alex to go out in.

"...Is this your wardrobe?"

Then, gazing at the colorful clothes in the wardrobe, Xiangzi remained silent for a moment.

"This looks more like your mother's wardrobe."

She turned her head and added a sentence.

"These are all my clothes, but they were indeed designed by my mother."

Somewhat puzzled as to why Xiangzi would say such a thing, Alex simply walked over, casually picked out a light purple, deep V-neck, backless, high-slit dress, and showed it to Xiangzi.

"She made them all by hand, don't you think? Aren't they beautiful?"

Alex draped it over her body, somewhat showing it off to Xiangzi.

It has to be said that with Alex's tall figure, if she wore this dress, she would definitely be able to charm a large number of men and women regardless of gender. From an aesthetic point of view, she can indeed fully support the sexy qualities that this dress is meant to show.

But this is definitely not clothing that you would normally wear out.

"She is indeed...beautiful, but isn't she a little too...mature?"

Just now, Xiangzi had involuntarily imagined what Alex would look like in this dress, and her face suddenly turned slightly red. She glanced sideways in a fluster and started picking through the wardrobe, muttering something under her breath.

"But most of the clothes my mom designs for me are this type. Can't I wear these?"

Alex, realizing she didn't know enough about the world, didn't object to Xiangzi's opinion; she just hesitated and hung the dress back in the closet.

"It's okay to wear this on certain occasions, but people don't usually dress like this... What is it?"

As Xiangzi was speaking, he suddenly paused.

"Bandages? Why would they be in the closet?"

She reached into the closet and pulled out a large roll of clean white bandages, but the material of the bandages was so soft that it didn't seem like a medical product.

"Oh, this is also an outfit my mom designed for me."

Alex, who was standing to the side, offered a brief explanation.

"clothing……?"

Xiangzi was stunned when she heard this. She couldn't imagine why a bandage could be used as clothing.

How am I supposed to wear this?

"Yes, just wrap it around your body like this, and you don't need to wear any other clothes on top, not even underwear. Actually, it's quite comfortable to wear, and it won't hinder your movement. How about that, isn't it convenient?"

Alex took the bandage from Xiangzi's hand, held it up to her chest to demonstrate, and then put it back in Xiangzi's hand.

"...!?"

Xiangzi finally realized how to put it on.

"No, no, no, no, shameless desuwa!"

Her eyes widened, her pupils trembled, and she stammered out a shout.

"Can't I wear this either?"

Alex merely pursed her lips with a hint of regret, her expression completely unchanged, seemingly not finding anything wrong with the 'clothes'.

"Absolutely not! Absolutely not!"

Shoko loudly refuted Alex's question, his mind now filled with the image of her completely naked, with only bandages covering her snow-white skin.

And coincidentally, she had just seen Alex's whole body not long ago.

That helped me remember it better.

In an instant, Xiangzi's face turned bright red. As if she were holding a hot potato, she hurriedly threw the bandage in her hand back into the wardrobe, then turned her head to the side and raised a hand to cover her mouth and nose, as if trying to hide her somewhat out-of-control expression.

but

From her palm, she seemed to faintly smell the pleasant grapefruit scent emanating from Alex. Upon closer inspection, the middle notes of jasmine and the base notes of slightly sour citrus made her subconsciously twitch her small nostrils.

Realizing what she was doing, Xiangzi stopped abruptly. Suddenly, she had an urge to turn around and run away.

"What's wrong, Toyokawa?"

Seeing that Xiangzi seemed to have a strange expression, Alex asked him curiously.

"...I'm fine."

Xiangzi put her hand down, took a deep breath, and forcibly suppressed the chaotic thoughts in her mind. She tightened her small face again and put on an indifferent appearance.

"Let me find you an outfit that won't attract attention if you go out... Is this the only dress you have in your wardrobe?"

As she spoke, she searched through the pile of clothes inside for clothes that appeared to be normal.

"Not really, it's just that recently, for some reason, Mom has become very fond of this style, so there are more of these dresses. If you look through them, you might find some old clothes, and those aren't all dresses."

Alex, who was standing next to her, helped her take out the clothes one by one from inside and explained.

Finally, Xiangzi managed to find two outfits suitable for the season and that he could wear normally from the pile of strange clothes that should have been on the cover of a fashion magazine or worn to a fashion show.

The outfit she found for Alex was a white turtleneck sweater paired with light blue jeans and a khaki coat.

It's a very casual and ordinary outfit.

Xiangzi himself wore a white inner shirt with a light yellow wool sweater on top, and a light gray knee-length skirt on the bottom.

Alex, worried that Xiangzi would lose blood due to the cold, wanted to ask her to wear a coat as well, but Xiangzi, with a slightly flushed face, refused.

Because of the height difference between the two, if Xiangzi were to wear Alex's pants or coat, it would look like a child wearing an adult's clothes, and she couldn't bear to do that.

Incidentally, since Alex couldn't find underwear that fit Xiangzi's body type in her wardrobe, she eventually had to suppress her embarrassment and temporarily borrow the bandage from him.

Volume 1: Chapter 19 Once Again, He Backed Down

"Are you really not going to take a rest?"

On his way downstairs, Xiangzi still asked Alex a question.

"It's okay. Under normal circumstances, unless we're trying to avoid the Phantom Wing or want to skip the night, my mom and I don't sleep."

Alex shook her head and said.

“Unlike you, sleeping is not a necessary activity for us block people. Besides, I can’t sleep during the day either.”

After she finished speaking, she turned her head and glanced at Xiangzi again.

"Cube people, they're amazing..."

Xiangzi didn't notice her gaze, but simply sighed softly.

"On the contrary, I think this world is more magical..."

Alex replied.

"Everyone in this world seems to be special."

……

In fact, Alex had already come out of the Sky Island around seven or eight o'clock this morning.

After yesterday's conversation with Xiangzi, and the discovery of the Sky Island world hidden beneath his house, Alex, his fear of this world seemed to have dissipated considerably.

During her conversation with Xiangzi, the urgent feeling of wanting to do something gradually subsided.

So today, she felt more at peace and had the urge to observe the world more closely.

Alex, who had returned to her room in the morning, lay on the windowsill of her bedroom, pressing her face against her arm, her skin curving into a rounded arc.

She gazed into the distance, watching the crowds slowly increase on the street below.

The snow last night wasn't heavy. There was only a thin layer of white snow on the roof of the burger shop, and even the snow in front of the shop wasn't heavy enough to need to be shoveled away.

But she could still see that the snow on the roads had been completely cleared away.

That's probably whose responsibility it is.

Cars of various styles and colors drove past, followed by a group of adults hurrying along, each seemingly with their own purpose. They never crossed paths, tacitly avoiding each other, heading towards a place Alex couldn't see.

Next came some younger children, dressed in several different outfits, walking past from various places. They usually had faint smiles on their faces. Those wearing the same style of clothing would walk together, forming small groups, chatting and laughing, and then leaving Alex's sight together.